Digital rights management is a great concern for digital content owners, such as owners of songs, movies, electronic books, and other types of digital media. Content owners try to sell and distribute their content in such a way to prevent the illegal copying of their content. For example, content, such as movies are widely sold and distributed on digital video discs (DVDs). To prevent illegal copying DVDs typically include copy protection mechanisms that prevent users from making copies. However, users still have the ability to play the DVDs on many devices without making copies by transferring the DVDs to each device as needed. Also, based on the legal principle of “right of first sale” users may legally sell the DVDs if desired without making a copy by simply giving the DVDs to the next owner.
It has currently become very convenient and popular to purchase and download digital content, such as purchasing and downloading songs or other types of content via the Internet or purchasing movies or other events on-demand from a cable or satellite provider. When digital content is stored locally on a user device in an unprotected format, the user may have the ability to make multiple copies of the content. Unlike a compact disc (CD) or DVD which is transferred manually between user devices without making copies, the user of locally-stored content may have the ability to store unlicensed copies of the content on several devices simultaneously and may have the ability to keep a copy of the content and distribute copies of the content to other users. Thus, without appropriate Digital Rights Management (DRM) technologies, it is difficult for the content owners to regulate the unlicensed copying and distribution of their content. In practice, most online content delivery stores use some form of DRM technology to protect against unauthorized copying. However, unlike a physical CD or DVD, in many instances, the DRM technology prevents the user from transferring purchased, downloaded content between several devices, such as between a portable music player and a home stereo, or transferring content to a device of a new owner that purchased the content from a user that originally purchased and downloaded the content.